The plug has been pulled on Surrey’s big FVDED in the Park music festival this summer.
“For the near future, FVDED will be on pause as we plan what’s next,” event organizers posted to Facebook on Thursday (March 2).
Refunds for the 2023 music festival at Holland Park “are being automatically processed,” they promised.
The decision to cancel “was not made lightly, but given the difficulties we’re currently facing, it was deemed the best course of action for this year.”
Those “difficulties” are not detailed, but several other B.C. music festivals have been cancelled or postponed due to rising production costs in the concert industry.
Starting in 2015, tens of thousands of ticketholders have flocked to the two-day FVDED festival, launched by the Vancouver-based Blueprint and Live Nation Canada concert companies. The Now-Leader has sought an interview about the festival cancellation.
Over the years FVDED has featured some big-name dance and hip-hop artists including The Weeknd, Deadmau5, The Chainsmokers, Travis Scott, ILLENIUM and others.
Every year, some Holland Park-area residents aren’t thrilled with the loud music and thousands of mostly young concert-goers that flock to the site.
The 2023 FVDED headliners, announced a few weeks ago, included Kentucky-raised rapper Jack Harlow and Bellingham-area electronic duo ODESZA, DJ Snake, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and dozens of other electronic, dance and hip-hop artists. This year’s dates at Holland Park were June 23-24.
• RELATED, from 2022: Rapper arrested on gang charges now replaced at Surrey’s FVDED music fest in July.
FVDED returned in 2022 after a couple years of COVID-caused cancellations. In 2021, event organizers had aimed to stage the postponed festival at Holland Park on Sept. 10-11, but those plans were scrubbed due to the pandemic. The 2020 festival was also cancelled.
“There’s a reason why FVDED in the Park has become one of the most popular music festivals in Western Canada, and why 50,000 fans flock to attend the two-day event each year,” Blueprint founder, Alvaro Prol, said last year.
In Thursday’s Facebook post, festival organizers said they’ve been fortunate to host some of the world’s biggest artists and have “received tremendous support from the local community. The Blueprint team is grateful for the opportunity to work alongside incredibly talented individuals in the industry and to create unforgettable experiences and memories at Holland Park.
“We could not be more thankful for all the amazing experiences and memories we shared together at Holland Park,” the post continues. “Blueprint lives to serve our community and you can guarantee we’ll come back with new ideas and concepts for our beautiful city and province.”
Those with questions are directed to an email address, info@fvdedinthepark.com.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram and follow Tom on Twitter
